St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-03-12
UNCLE ABE SEES AGHOST.
Strange Adventures of an AMcien,
Hunter in the Missouri Back

Country.
There lives few miles from here, says a
Missouri City correspondent of the Globe
Democrat, an old fox hunter who certainly
had an interesting and very exciting eX-
perience with a SpOOk not many months
ago. His name is Abraham Moreland, and
he is a prosperous and well-to-do farmer of
high standing in the community. Noman'S
word stands higher than his, especially in
any business transaction, the best place,
perhaps, to test the reliability OF man. The
place where Uncle Abe" as he is famil-
iarly called, claims to have seen this spec
ter was among the high and rugged hills
that bound the north bank of Cooley lake
the famous and well-known hunting and
fishing resort. The hills are heavily TIM
bered, and not very frequently Jraversed by
man. To Globe Democrat correspondent
he related his story to-day as follows:
I'm company with several of my neigh
bors we were out on a fox chase in the
night in question, and that nights awful
experience will never be forgotten by me.
We had been on the chase for an hour or
so. and during the time L had become sepa-
rated from the rest of the party. Finally,
from the barking Of the hounds. / knew
that the chase had grown most too warm
for Reynard, and that he had taken refuge
in his den. AS dismounted and started
down the steep hill in the direction where
the dogs were. when l had proceeded some
distance, and nearly reached the dogs, sud-
denly there appeared near me ghostly OBJ
ject, resembling the form of man. At
first thought it was only comrade of
mine, with white sheet trying to brighten
me. So spoke, requesting the supposed
man to come on and go to the dogs.
remarking that | was not easily
frightened. The object stood motionless
and responded with low, mumblng noise.
l then picked up large store. which l
threw straight through the mysterious Wis
it0r. l could plainly SEE the missile pass
through the object. At this stage l began
to get a little shakY. Again 1 hurled rock
through the thing with the result as before
l then began to retrace my steps. and con-
Guided it would be all right to leave the fox
in his present quarters. Gradually l has
tened my steps to return to my horse,
while fear and strange feelings were fast
gaining possession Of my mind and heart
Suddenly the gh0stly form again appeared
before me and was fearfully terrorized.
The cold perspration gathered on nv
brow. and l was trembling with
fright. The awful spell that
the presence of this mysterious visitor
threw over me cannot be described or ex-
pressed in words. Raising my hand over
my head and appealing to the Almighty on
high, asked; why, oh, why had this
mysterious object dropped down from the
unknown realm above to terrorize my
soul?' The goblin, OF whatever it was,
slowly beckoned its arm toward me and re-
peated the mumbIing sound. Again [
rushed onward, and, after climbing up over
cliff of rocks, the spectral form was be-
fore ME again. There it stood in all its
ghostly whiteness. Gathering all my
strength. almost Frustrated pushed by and
| reached my horse, which was trembling
from head to foot. The dogs had left their
| prey and had gathered close under the horse,
After l mounted. the horse sped homeward
with the swiftness of the wind. On reach
| ing home my mind was in such an excited
| and nervous state that sleep was jmpossi-
BILE. and all through the long hours of the
| night the ghoStly visitor could not be re-
| moved from my mind. l never thought
| for once of the loss of my hat and hunting
horn until the next day, when some of the
boys came over to inquire the cause of my
sudden aud unceremoniOus desertiOn of the
| party. the night before. l related to them
what had happened and requested some of
| them to go to the locality and search for the
| lost articles. which they did, and were sue
cessful in finding the hat and the horn.
| II will not attempt to explain OF account
| for the mysteriousness of the affair, but l
| am certain that what | saw was something
unearthly. never believed in spiritualism
| nor am | supertitiOus: still | cannot enter
tain the idea that it was only all optical il
fusion or freak OF Imagination. Would it
be contrary to the general order of things
or going too far to form the belief, or at
least the opinion, that the Supreme Being
above, who blowsethe breath of life in the
babe, and at His will calls the spirit back to
| heaven, should for some unknown and mvs-
FERROUS object send said spirit back to earth
in obscure forms? Anyway, to the end of
my existence, never will the remembrance
of that awful event be erased from my
memory. During that night my head be-
came frosted with a snow white that the
| sun OF all the time can never melt"
| Such is the fox hunters story. "Uncle
Abe' has never ventured in the locality
since, and oft while preparing to 90 on
chase some of the party will suggest going
to the spook region. "Uncle Abe' will
| cast his eye toward the hill in the distance,
| robed in azure hue and with slow shake
| of the head answer, Not there, boys" 1t
is not known that any one else ever saw
any unusual sight there. On the hills are
to be seen many Indian graves, and the
| grinning skulls and bleached bones of an
| almost extinct race are seen now and then
| scattered over the ground. 1t is told in
| tradition that here bloody and bitter In
dian war was once fought and that the
| spirit OF many brave from there took it's
flight to the happy hunting grounds"
| Had q Right 10 BE English.